


your life's in these pictures

by helloearthlings



Category: King Falls AM (Podcast)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Friendship, Gen, M/M, Post-Canon, Tattoos
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-09
Updated: 2018-12-09
Packaged: 2019-09-14 13:34:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,450
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16913811
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/helloearthlings/pseuds/helloearthlings
Summary: Sammy was planning on being pouty and annoying when he went to find Jack after waking up in an empty bed, but those plans stop and his heart may or may not melt on the spot when he sees Ben curled up against Jack’s shoulder on the couch, Jack’s laptop between them, both of them laughing at something on the screen.“Morning,” Sammy says from the hallway, and they both turn to grin at him, Jack’s soft and Ben’s blinding. Sammy thinks he might cry, and quickly clears his throat to focus on something else. “What’s going on?”“C’mere!” Ben gestures him over. “We’re picking out Jack’s tattoos.”





	your life's in these pictures

**Author's Note:**

> I have lots of fic ideas but also lots of final exams!!
> 
> Also, I will get to my latest tumblr prompts one of these days, but I'm giving my own ideas preference right now! I'll def get to them over the holidays when I have much more free time, lmao. Hope you like this one for now!

Sammy was planning on being pouty and annoying when he went to find Jack after waking up in an empty bed, but those plans stop and his heart may or may not melt on the spot when he sees Ben curled up against Jack’s shoulder on the couch, Jack’s laptop between them, both of them laughing at something on the screen.

“Morning,” Sammy says from the hallway, and they both turn to grin at him, Jack’s soft and Ben’s blinding. Sammy thinks he might cry, and quickly clears his throat to focus on something else. “What’s going on?”

“C’mere!” Ben gestures him over. “We’re picking out Jack’s tattoos.”

Sammy grabs a clementine off the kitchen counter first before heading over to the couch, jostling the laptop slightly as he sits on Jack’s other side. Jack automatically squeezes Sammy’s hand in greeting. Sammy’s never going to get used to having that again.

“I thought you were just redoing the ones you’ve already got,” Sammy says, squinting down at the laptop screen. They’re on a page for watercolor tattoos, which is what Jack had said he was going to get over his black ink tattoos to cover up the scarring.

“Want to get half-sleeves,” Jack says, a slight grimace on his face even though his voice is light.

Jack’s back, neck, and shoulders have a few too many slices in them for Sammy’s comfort health-wise, even if they all seem to be healed at this point, leaving a lot of scar tissue but not much else. He knows Jack doesn’t much care for the pain, but he cares even less for how people look at the scars instead of at his face.

If Jack’s covered up, most of the scars aren’t visible, but even with the thin t-shirt he’s wearing now, Sammy can see the scars that start on his back and creep up his neck and the ones that dip down his shoulder blades onto his biceps.

Jack already has tattoos on both of his shoulders, and was going to have the lines redone over the scars and filled in with the watercolor, but apparently he’s decided on more.

Sammy rests his hand lightly against Jack’s knee. “Okay. What’d you talk him into getting, Ben?”

“Glad you asked!” Ben grins, pointing to the screen. “We found these watercolor ones but trying to mimic cracking, and I thought it’d be sweet to not just, like, cover up his scars, but make them look super cool.”

“Sounds like something you guys would cook up,” Sammy says with a fond smile. He turns to Jack, remembering something. “Are we still gonna get another matching one like we talked about? After we get married?”

“You guys have _matching tattoos_?” Ben practically coos, and Sammy reaches across Jack to shove at Ben, even though he knew perfectly well what bringing that up in front of Ben would result in. He likes winding Ben up. Jack just laughs at both of them. “Where? What are they? That’s so adorable.”

“You’ve seen it before,” Sammy says, shaking his head and pulling down the right corner of his shirt so his collarbone is visible. A small bolded _MM_ in calligraphy sits just beneath the bone.

Jack pulls down his shirt slightly as well. The scarring hasn’t reaching his own _MM_ in the same place, cutting off just at the edge of his collarbone. It feels like a sign, if Sammy believed in that sort of thing.

“We met in 2000,” Jack explains to Ben. “We thought that the Roman numerals were innocuous and discreet enough. We talked about getting one on the other side with the year we got married – and yeah, of course I still wanna do it.”

Jack grins dopily at Sammy and Sammy knows he looks equally stupid as he smiles back. It’s a good thing Ben is the sappiest person alive, making an _aww_ noise.

“And its 2020, that’s a good year for it!” Ben beams. “I don’t know what the Roman numeral is, but it won’t be a million digits long. God, you guys are too sweet. Also, I didn’t know Jack had an _X Files_ tattoo until today! I can’t believe you never told me that!”

“It didn’t come up,” Sammy defends himself. “Also, I’m embarrassed by it. I’m embarrassed that it exists, let alone that I was there when he got it.”

“Hey!” Jack hits Sammy’s shoulder. “It’s a classy X Files tattoo! Not like the one I threatened to make you get of Scully, since you _are_ Scully…”

The look on Ben’s face is priceless. “ _What_ tattoo is this?”

“A cringe-worthy, embarrassing, _nonexistent_ one,” Sammy shoots Jack a betrayed look, but Jack just wiggles his eyebrows at him and laughs at Sammy’s pain. “Jack has a real X Files tattoo, which is the worst thing here.”

“I love it,” Ben declares to Jack, flipping Sammy off without looking at him. “ _I Want to Believe_ is classic tattoo material.”

“I had to talk him out of _do you think I’m spooky_ ,” Sammy makes a face at Jack, who just shakes his head fondly.

“That’s good, too!” Ben says as if that’s a normal thing to want tattooed on your body, but then again Ben and Jack make up their own sub-section of humanity that’s pretty much reserved just for them. “If I wasn’t so scared of needles, I would’ve gotten, like, _the truth is out there_ back in college.”

“College is when Jack got that monstrosity, and most of his impulse tattoos,” Sammy says, kicking Jack’s leg lightly. “He has too many. And now he’s getting a _sleeve…._ ”

“You have at least half a dozen, so you can’t judge me,” Jack says, his voice taking on a sing-song quality, not taking Sammy seriously in the slightest. He never did. It’s one of Sammy’s favorite things about Jack, not that he’d ever tell him that.

Instead, Sammy just rolls his eyes and tries not to grin too much. “Yeah, and half of them were your idea, so…”

“You guys are so cute,” Ben interrupts with a happy sigh, looking at them both like they’re indistinguishable from newborn puppies. “Should I make breakfast?”

Sammy’s about to suggest meeting Emily for her lunch break – she’s the only one of them who works ordinary hours, and therefore is out of the apartment at a decent time in the morning unlike the three of them – but Jack stops that short with a twinkle in his eye.

“Not until you tell Sammy what tattoo _you’re_ getting when you come with me next week,” Jack says, nudging Ben’s shoulder.

Ben blushes beet red and Sammy bursts into a peel of laughter.

“Ben?” Sammy snorts. “A tattoo? He cries when he gets flu shots!”

“ _Dude_ ,” Ben whines, making a cutting motion with his hand. Ben’s still laboring under the delusion that Jack’s the coolest person alive, which means he likes to cut Sammy’s most embarrassing anecdotes about him short.

“He’s gonna get one,” Jack declares with certainty, putting his arm around Ben’s shoulder and making Ben do that smiley, melty thing he does when someone he likes pays attention to him. “I believe in him.”

“Don’t peer pressure him!” Sammy says, pulling Jack away from Ben and towards him, but he’s laughing. “Ben, this is how all of my tattoos happened – be smarter than me!”

“I didn’t even bring it _up_ ,” Jack says with his most winning, innocent smile that Sammy doesn’t trust for a second. “We were looking at designs and he saw one he liked and he said he wanted it! I had nothing to do with it other than _encouragement_ , which is what friends do.”

“Yeah, _Sammy,_ ” Ben says, schooling his face into a fake-hurt expression. Sammy knows it’s fake, he can tell by how the side of Ben’s mouth is twitching. “I can make my own decisions!”

“Yeah, and you’re also gonna decide to run screaming as soon as someone puts a needle on your skin,” Sammy says and Ben’s face breaks into a giggle.

“Am not!” Ben says, fighting to return his face to serious, but it’s far too late for that.  

“Alright, show me, tough guy,” Sammy says, gesturing toward the computer screen. Sticking his tongue out, Ben shifts the computer toward him to type into the search bar.

“This one,” Ben says, spinning the screen back in Sammy’s direction. “I mean, it’s kind of cliché, having a forest skyline and all, but I thought I’d design my own version and put the radio tower in the skyline.”

“That’s….” Sammy bites his lip, a warm feeling in his chest. “That’s really sweet, Ben. And way more emotionally meaningful than any of my tattoos. Or Jack’s, for that matter.”

"The X Files is very meaningful,” Jack says as he rolls his eyes at the ceiling, but when he looks at Ben, it’s with the utmost fondness. “But that one is, I have to admit, way better.”

Jack turns to look at Sammy and Sammy knows immediately what he’s thinking from a raise of Jack’s eyebrow, and he nods discreetly at Jack, trying to hide a smile. Ben’s going to love this.

“Should I get it, too?" Sammy asks, already knowing it's barely a question from the way Ben's face breaks into a beaming smile. "That way _we_ have a matching tattoo, one that means something to both of us…”

Sammy trails off meaningfully, but it doesn’t matter, Ben’s already launched himself across Jack’s lap to hug Sammy. He laughs, harder than he has in a long time, as Ben goes “Oh my God, _obviously_ we should both get it, this is _so exciting_ …Really? You really want to?”

Sammy pats Ben’s back, and Jack says from where he’s stuck with Ben’s elbow in his face, “You guys are giving me cavities."

“Yeah, yeah,” Sammy says, rolling his eyes as Ben finally lets him go, and he can tell that Ben’s about to get all sniffling and sappy just from the look on his face. “Ben and his flu shot tears have to make it through getting ink first.”

“Shut up, I can do it,” Ben says, his voice full of clearly faked confidence. When he speaks next, though, his voice wavers slightly. “I mean…how bad will it hurt?”

* * *

 

Two weeks later, Sammy’s holding Ben’s hand and Emily’s soothingly reading a passage of Kurt Vonnegut for Ben to focus on instead of the tattoo artist’s steady work on his left forearm.

Ben’s holding tight enough to break and he’s looking anywhere but at his arm. Right now, he’s staring up at the ceiling, his breath slow and labored.

“How’s he doing?” Jack’s voice interrupts, and Sammy barely has to turn before Jack’s pressed up against Sammy’s chair, his hand automatically going to Sammy’s shoulder. Sammy will never get used to that.

Jack’s session lasted hours, but Jack’s old hat at this, and Sammy takes notice of the bandages on Jack’s arms but is currently far more concerned about Ben’s pitiful whimpers that he lets out every couple of minutes.

Concerned and amused, and possibly took a video of this.

Sammy had gotten his tattoo done first, mainly so Ben could see exactly what it was like and how calm Sammy stayed throughout it all. Since it was the exact same design in the exact same place, Sammy reasoned with Ben’s wide eyes and quivering lip, his should hurt the exact same amount, and Sammy was fine afterwards.

And also, if Sammy already _had_ the tattoo, Ben couldn’t back out now.

“He’s surviving,” Ben interrupts Emily’s reading with his voice a couple octaves higher than usual.

“How was yours, Jack?” Emily asks. “I mean, you’re getting it over scar tissue, that can’t be fun.”

“Not fun but worth it,” Jack agrees, wincing slightly. Sammy waves his free hand that Ben’s currently not cutting the circulation off of in Jack’s direction, and Jack finds it in midair with a laugh, and squeezes, so Sammy knows he’s okay. “We gonna talk you into a tattoo today, Emily?”

“I work with kids in a small town, it’s very much against code for me to have any tattoo visible,” Emily says, her smile knowing but barely contained. “So no dice, but maybe next time.”

“We’ll convert you eventually,” Jack says, letting go of Sammy’s hand to move to his other side and crane his neck at the tattoo artist’s work. “Wow, it looks great.”

“Thanks,” the tattoo artist, whose name escapes Sammy, says cheerfully from where she works. She nudges Ben's leg with her knee. “You’ve only got a little longer, buddy.”

Ben lets out a low groan, but he’s shifted to staring up at Jack. “Am I dying? I feel like I might be dying. Sammy and Emily wouldn’t tell me if I was dying, but you would, right Jack?”

Jack laughs, running his hand through Ben’s hair in a comforting gesture. “You’re not dying, Ben.”

Sammy makes a disgruntled noise as Emily says “Ben, _of course_ we would tell you if you were dying. I’d be on the phone with Troy trying not to cry, Sammy would be hyperventilating into a bag….if you were dying, right now would be a _very_ different situation.”

“He knows that,” Sammy makes a face at Ben, who isn’t looking at him, but that’s beside the point. “He’s just been whimpering at us for so long that we’re immune, and he’s looking for new victims.”

Jack laughs and Ben makes another pathetic noise. Emily pats Ben’s leg with a roll of her eyes in Sammy's direction, but they’re both grinning.

“Should I get back to Slaughterhouse Five?” Emily asks, her eyes sparkling with laughter, as she starts to read again.

It’s only about fifteen more minutes until the tattoo artist declares “All done!” and Ben lets out the biggest sigh of relief Sammy’s ever heard. He gets a look at it as the tattoo artist wraps it up, and he beams in Sammy’s direction after that, apparently all the pain forgotten.

Ben springs up as soon as he’s able to hug Sammy, almost knocking him over with the momentum.

"So you like it?" Sammy laughs, using Ben's shoulders to balance himself and stay upright. 

“It’s perfect,” Ben says into Sammy’s shoulder. “Thank you for doing this with me. I love it so much. Also, I made it through and therefore you can never make fun of me again!”

“For this, maybe,” Sammy says, ruffling Ben’s hair. “I still plan on making fun of you for everything else.”

“Whatever, dude, you love me. We have matching tattoos and you love me,” Ben kicks Sammy’s leg and Sammy doesn’t even try to argue that.


End file.
